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Pythons in Florida

#101
The average temp @ Everglades Nat. Park has been right around 65 degrees the last month.

If those snakes were up around St. Augustine / Jacksonville, I'd be opening up a fancy schmancy boot factory right now.
 
#102
I'm just as eager to get the boar out of FL, as well. They're invasive, and they wreck everything in their path. Good thing the animals we need to hunt out of the environment down here taste great, and/or provide awesome skins for jackets and boots and such.
 
#103
As much as I love reptiles (turtles/tortoises and ball pythons my loves) I think they need to get on the ball and start removing the burms out of there. If they must kill them, sell the skins and meat and put it into the preservation of the glades.

It's all these jackasses who ruin it for the dedicated herp keepers releasing their snakes (and other species) into an ideal habitat in turn screwing it all up. I was down there few years ago, I saw a foot long plecostomus (algea sucker catfish from oh...i forget, they're native of asia somewhere) and it infuriated me. Someone dumped their aquarium.
Moments later though, I saw close enough the power of a gorgeous alligator, he thrashed around a bit before cruising off. That was amazing!

Over on turtleforum, someone once posted a turtle they saw in the glades, looked like he was just cruising across a dirty road.... I identified it as a ornate wood turtle (rp manni) and I'm LIKE ***!? theyre native of nicaragua/costa rica..they took the turtle home with them, he wasn't native & simply didn't belong there. Last time I knew he was well taken care of.
 
#104
Dr. Cheese said:
I wonder how the severe cold snap is affecting the invasive reptile populations in Florida? I keep hearing reports of iguana falling out of trees in Florida. None of the news reports note that iguanas are an invasive species. Indigenous lizards are brumating at this time. Miami is projected to have its first freeze in 20+ years this weekend. It probably will not be long enough to thin python populations in that area and the Everglades, however, I would guess that the pythons being observed in Aiken, SC won't make it this winter.

There are some indigenous species that are threatened like sea turtles and manatees because of the below normal water temperatures.
Click to expand...

My guess is that a lot of them will die this week. The state stocked the Broward canals with Peacock bass (actually cichlids) many years ago to control the tilapia. The Broward canals usually never go below 80 which is the lower end of the Peackock's temp range and it keeps them from spreading over the state. I am sure that this week many of them will die. Many tropical invasive species are going to die off this week.

I live in Palm Beach County. It's really cold here. This morning I went to the beach (A Nature Conservancy preserve) for my weekly surf fishing trip. Cold rain wind about 38 degrees. Crazy to fish but there were a few pompano out there that needed catching. Unbelievable cold for this part of the country. I heard it was snowing in ORlando today.

Anyway the volunteer there told me that there have been record numbers of sea turtle strandings, some rehab centers have 100 or more of them. They can't take the cold here this week and are really taking a hit. One rehab center supposedly opened its doors this week and had 150 sea turtles within hours.

PS Buslady: I agree. The state non-native species biologist recommends always taking invasive species out of the environment if you catch one. He told me this personally. It's actually illegal to release a tilapia back into the water once you catch it or transport it live. The state biologists want tilapia taken to be killed. The same evidently goes for other non native fish (except peacock bass). Some fish club guys I know say there are huge populations of giant plecostomus near here and the everglades, they're breeding. (I'm a vet and I used to work with herps a lot and I also love turtles/torts).
 
#105
Buslady7803 said:
It's all these jackasses who ruin it for the dedicated herp keepers releasing their snakes (and other species) into an ideal habitat in turn screwing it all up. I was down there few years ago, I saw a foot long plecostomus (algea sucker catfish from oh...i forget, they're native of asia somewhere) and it infuriated me. Someone dumped their aquarium.
Click to expand...

Sorry for nitpicking, but plecos aren't from Asia. They're South/Central American. But it's still bad. I hear there are plenty of peacock basses (which is in fact a cichlid) too in Florida, alongside with oscars, tilapias, midas cichlids..

So it's not just bad rep for responsible herp keepers, but aquarists too.

Why are people so bloody stupid?
 
#106
Kipaste said:
Sorry for nitpicking, but plecos aren't from Asia. They're South/Central American. But it's still bad. I hear there are plenty of peacock basses (which is in fact a cichlid) too in Florida, alongside with oscars, tilapias, midas cichlids..

So it's not just bad rep for responsible herp keepers, but aquarists too.

Why are people so bloody stupid?
Click to expand...

Yes, oscars too. The peacocks were introduced deliberately. Also some of the rogue fish were from fish farms flooded during hurricanes, not all were pet fish releases. S Florida used to be fish farm central when land was cheap. No more but...
 
#107
You guys in the USA have nothing to worry about, with all your big pythons. Just the other day, when I was at the river with some friends, we saw 4 eastern brown snakes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_brown_snake (second most venomous land snake in the WORLD)

One of my earliset memories was when a massive Coastal Tiapan came up to the back door. Which I think is the 4th most venomous land snake.
 
#108
are you kidding me? Australia is a herpers' wet dream...

Ackies
Womas
Black Heads
Children's Pythons
Stimson's
Macklots
Olive Pythons
White Lips
Ringed Pythons
Bredli
Carpet Pythons
Diamond Pythons
Green Trees
Rough Scales
Amethystine Pythons
Scrub Pythons

Trade places with you in a second mate...lol
 
#113
snakeman, your green snake there, very beautiful. what species is it? i love snakes but have never really taken the time to research or learn many names or anything. but i live in nova scotia, so the most snakes we get here are generally small grass snakes. still cool though
 
#114
if you mean the green snake in my avatar that is a Green Tree Python.....the scientific name is Morelia viridis...though some still call them Chondropythons....

they range from extreme northern Australia to Papua New Guinea and Irian Jaya (which i think is now called West Papua New Guinea) and some islands found off the coast of each including Aru, Biak, Arfak, Yapen, and Misool...

If you want to see some really extreme specimens of this serpent you should check out www.finegtps.com Greg Maxwell is them man when it comes to this species....in fact he has written the book on these snakes...called the more complete chondro....i have my autographed copy right here on the shelf..lol

Edit:

Funny thing is Greg has sold off most of his snakes and is going to Lutheir school to learn how to build acoustic guitars...lol
 
#116
I have worked with snakes (particularly pythons) professionally for coming up on 15 years, I haven't had a chance to read all of the responses yet (there are a few other snake dorks like me here), but I thought I would offer a quick word....


This is all utter, complete nonsense.
The USGS study was so flawed it should hardly be considered science.

P.m.bivittatus is a tropical animal, while there are some populations found in areas with mild winters, these are not the animals from which domestic lines originated. These in captivity (or progeny therof) have little to no chance of surviving freezing temps.

To be clear, Burmese pythons will not be invading my home state of Georgia any time soon, let alone any farther north.

I will address this in more detail later as time permits...

Snakeman1066- Do we know each other? lol. Drop me a PM if so.... I try to stay anonymous over here...but maybe we know each other from MVF or something? My id here is my email....

There is another MVF'er here...but I won't out him-lol.
 

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